CHAPTER 564: CHAPTER 564: NINE-YEAR COMPULSORY EDUCATION IS AWESOME

"We elves and you humans are not the same; we truly can understand each other’s intentions. You are not an elf, so do not hastily draw conclusions." Ailena strongly denied.

Yang Yu really wanted to retort with "You’re not a human, how would you know whether I understand the elves’ intentions or not," but he thought better of it. After all, if the Elf Queen retorted back, it would be an endless argument.

Yang Yu smiled and chose to avoid the topic, saying,

"It seems, Queen, that you also realize you cannot achieve much, yet you still try to affirm everything you do.

No matter, let me change the approach and expose your wounds.

Queen, do you understand the severity of what has happened in the past few days?

As far as I know, almost all of your food comes from this fertile Elf Forest.

To allow the elves to gather enough food, they live scattered throughout various small villages.

But due to the events a year ago, this situation has been disrupted.

The small-government, small-population model you once envisioned has fallen into an unprecedented food crisis.

And this crisis will bring even more tragic consequences.

The burned-down temporary villages, just how much food was burnt in that fire, leaving nothing but ashes.

And the hunting teams responsible for hunting, I tried my best, but only a tiny fraction of them was saved.

This tiny fraction is probably not even a tenth of the hunting teams that were sent out.

Without those skilled hunters, do you think the novice hunters, who barely understand hunting, can make long journeys to deliver a large amount of game here?

Even if they manage to bring it here, how many people can it feed?

To protect the people, you tacitly allow them to settle near Luoyu City, only thinking about maintaining your own dignity and influence, without considering the consequences, or rather, knowing the consequences but still choosing to let them settle.

How many elves will die this winter because of your decision?

Starved to death, frozen to death in the snowstorms, or eaten by demons because they are not familiar with hunting, just how many will there be?

Queen, what are you planning to do this winter, surely you don’t think that just understanding each other’s intentions will see you through this cold winter?

How did you spend last winter?

It was a bountiful autumn, yet so sparingly did you gather, you must have seen the cruelty of last winter!"

"Don’t speak anymore... please, don’t speak anymore..."

Ailena lowered her head and unconsciously covered her ears, each point Yang Yu made striking the softest part of her heart.

"No, I must continue speaking, all of this is an attempt to avoid letting things become irrevocable.

My companion risked exposure to save those elves’ lives, I don’t want to see her efforts go to waste.

Queen Ailena, you once said that the older the elf, the more obsessed they become with certain things.

And more likely they are to give their lives easily for a cause.

Yet why are there so few elderly elves who have established a belief system living in Elf Forest?

There are no elves over a thousand years old, and those over five hundred are rare.

As far as I know, the elves now living in Elf Forest are generally under four hundred years old."

"Why do you know that?"

"I asked someone to gather intelligence. After reading the ’Elven Chronicles,’ I became somewhat intrigued. The current state of the Elf Forest is full of contradictions, which piqued my interest, so I did a little investigation.

I really did find some interesting things."

Yang Yu took out the ’Elven Chronicles’ and turned to the first page,

"Elves are a race blessed by the goddess. They have had records of ascension in the distant past, but in the official records of the elves, it wasn’t until four hundred years ago that the first record of ascension appeared.

If the saying ’one can ascend by living a peaceful life in the village’ had existed from the start, why then are there so many detailed descriptions of places outside the Elf Forest in the ’Elven Chronicles’?

What if this kind of ’isolationist policy,’ using beliefs to bind the elves, didn’t exist at all before Queen Ailena came to power?

When humans and other races were not so harsh on elves and could coexist peacefully, were you elves, like other races, visible everywhere in this world, adventuring?

Thus, elves who die for a certain belief, which is rare in today’s circumstances, are born.

Queen, you must be well aware of this.

Then you use the belief ’as long as one can live peacefully, one will definitely reach the goddess’ to bind countless elves, making them complacent and confined to this forest.

By erasing their risk of death, you also erase their desire to seek knowledge and experience from the outside world.

Without any spiritual pursuits, they are easily satisfied.

I’ve heard a saying.

Whether it’s the heartfelt words of those in suffering or, perhaps, the ruthless words of an emperor.

It’s called ’as long as the people are fed, who would bother causing trouble.’

Queen Ailena, what you do and how you act,

It’s nothing but the work of a tyrannical yet cowardly monarch."

Yang Yu spoke passionately, reflecting on the past and present in his world, deeply moved by the many things taught to him by his nine years of compulsory education.

As a young, naive person, he had thought that most of what he learned was useless, hastily studied just to pass exams.

During his university years, he often hovered on the verge of failing but thinking about retaking courses and how it would delay his game playing, he still scraped by.

But with adulthood, as his mind matured, Yang Yu realized how truly important nine years of compulsory education was.

Otherwise, he would have been stuck in decryption games and thinking about dying; how could he then write strategies to earn money? And now, he certainly wouldn’t be able to speak such sophisticated words just to hold up appearances.

"Tyrannical yet cowardly ... Why do you think I am a cowardly person, do you know how much determination it took for me to decide to do this?

I have also lived a long time, and I have witnessed numerous people disappear before my eyes, my father, my mother, and Queen Mingtu Saiqiu, who was very affectionate towards me.

But now, I am the only one left here, just me."

Finally, Ailena couldn’t keep her voice steady,

"We had promised to go to the goddess together and live happily ever after, but in the end, only I am left!"

In the face of the Queen’s roar, Yang Yu’s eyes showed only sadness, "So you shift the blame, all of it, onto the tempting external world? That’s what I mean by cowardice."

"I just want to protect my people, ensure that they can keep on living, creating... No, I might be exaggerating the truth. No one can prove I am wrong."

"But no one can prove you’re right either. It’s commendable that you want more elves to survive, but by removing the elves’ potential, you remove any flexibility to adapt to external changes. This is not the happiness you imagine, but a tragedy."